The Question of Rey — A Guest Blog by Eric Onkenhout

So I’m assuming that everyone reading this has seen Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. If you haven’t, then you need to quietly turn around and pretend this never happened.

Alrighty then, now we can proceed. There have been theories up the you-know-what about who is related to who and what does it all mean. Well here’s another theory that popped into my head upon my 6th viewing of the latest film in the Star Wars saga. Naturally it all surrounds the film’s main protagonist: Rey. The questions; who is she? Who are her parents? Where does she come from? These are all valid questions and ones that probably won’t be answered until May 2017, when the next episode is released, at the very soonest. But Star Wars fans are going to do what Star Wars fan do…and that is speculate.

Before I get into the meaty part, I want to make sure that it’s clear that this is my theory alone and no one else’s. Here goes nothing! Rey is neither a Skywalker nor a Solo. Wait don’t leave. Let me explain! Doesn’t it feel like such a cop-out if Rey were to be Luke or Leia’s daughter? I mean why does everyone need to be related? I know Star Wars is all about family drama, but would it be a little refreshing to have a whole new lineage take the mantle? Let’s retrace my steps. Han doesn’t know who Rey is. He clearly asked her what her name is. I just don’t see Rey having any connection with Han or Leia. Why would Leia refer to Rey as “the girl?” It sounds kind of cold for a mother to refer to her own daughter like that. With all the Solo family drama surrounding Kylo Ren, Rey doesn’t get any attention. So forget that theory.

I’ll admit having Rey as Luke’s daughter makes a lot more sense. Rey does have an uncanny resemblance to Padme, and it’s pretty obvious Rey has Force abilities. And honestly it is likely that this will be the case, but for the sake of argument I’m going to play devil’s advocate, and say that just seems too easy. I know Star Wars is supposed to be easy, and not have a lot of plot twists, but can we just keep it interesting? When Rey holds Luke’s lightsaber out to Luke, to me it looks like Luke is thinking, “Hey, that’s my lightsaber, how did you get it?”

Seriously though, if she was his daughter wouldn’t being there be enough for Luke to awaken? Why the need to hold out the lightsaber? Wouldn’t she just say, “Hi dad! Oh by the way here’s your old lightsaber.” Yes it could be argued that Leia wouldn’t just send anyone to find Luke, but again I don’t think it’s relevant who goes, but instead what the message is, and the fact that Chewie and R2-D2 were with her as well is enough evidence to show that she is of importance, but she doesn’t necessarily have to be related to anyone. She’s a powerful new character in a vast galaxy with the ability to stand on her own, without having to be related to a Skywalker.

Eric

Simple Jawa

I’ve actually been wondering if she’s related to Snoke in some way. It would be quite yin and yang if so. We have Ren as a Solo, someone who should stand for light and hope had he been “raised” (for lack of a better word ) differently, so it would be sort of poetic to have Rey be related to Snoke seeing as he is of darkness and (so far) Rey represents a return of hope. Just my 2 cents, but one thing I’m almost certain of is that Kylo knows who she is. He acts ways too interested in her when he proclaims “what girl”!? after he’s been alerted of her presence, even before he’s become aware of her force powers. I don’t know, perhaps I’m looking too into Adam Driver’s performance…

Yea I’m pretty sure Kylo knows about Rey. He even says, “the girl I’ve heard so much about.” It depends on the context of what he is saying, but it definitely appears that he is at least somewhat familiar with Rey.